Apparently Our Leader Who Shall Not Be Named is convinced that Burke is a dangerous neo-pelagian who must be removed to the hinterlands. You have to appreciate the sly drollity of it all: send the bounder to the one place on earth where Roman Catholicism can still pass as a lifestyle -- an inconsequential island in the Mediterranean which most churchmen today regard as a laughable disneyland of pre-conciliar Catholic silliness. When it comes to sheer political snarkiness, bet on Vatican City every time!
I've never quite accepted the idea of Burke as a "neo-pelagian", but its obvious that he's better than most: as bishop of my diocese, for example, he would seem heaven sent compared to the nonentity currently in charge. But if this report turns out to be true, then the message is unmistakable. Exiled to a Catholic Fantasy Island of pageantry and powerlessness, Burke will perhaps not be in a position to effectively oppose the agendas of his thoroughly modern colleagues at the upcoming stink bomb of a synod, nor to deliver quotable foot-in-keister observations on their proclivities to slavering media.
If true, rather the mirror image of Paul VI exiling Bugnini to Iran!
ReplyDeleteApparently Our Leader Who Shall Not Be Named is convinced that Burke is a dangerous neo-pelagian who must be removed to the hinterlands. You have to appreciate the sly drollity of it all: send the bounder to the one place on earth where Roman Catholicism can still pass as a lifestyle -- an inconsequential island in the Mediterranean which most churchmen today regard as a laughable disneyland of pre-conciliar Catholic silliness. When it comes to sheer political snarkiness, bet on Vatican City every time!
ReplyDeleteI've never quite accepted the idea of Burke as a "neo-pelagian", but its obvious that he's better than most: as bishop of my diocese, for example, he would seem heaven sent compared to the nonentity currently in charge. But if this report turns out to be true, then the message is unmistakable. Exiled to a Catholic Fantasy Island of pageantry and powerlessness, Burke will perhaps not be in a position to effectively oppose the agendas of his thoroughly modern colleagues at the upcoming stink bomb of a synod, nor to deliver quotable foot-in-keister observations on their proclivities to slavering media.